HandicappedPets.Net

I received this email today, obviously from a scammer:

Subject: A message about your ad on HandicappedPets.com
Date: February 15, 2011 7:49:27 AM EST
From: Carter.jnr@gmail.com

Solvit Blue Large Pet Stroller

Hello Seller,
My Name is Carter,I saw your advert that was posted at site, and i am
willing to purchase the(Item) posted for sale on the site,i'm okay with the price and condition.
But i will be leaving the state to CANADA for a speculative purpose. As per payment i will have to instruct
my colleague to send you a certified cashiers check or a US money order via ups courier service which will take
only 2-3 days to get to you. That is the only means of payment I can offer you now due to my departing schedule.
You should not worry about the shipping, i have my shipper that will come down to your house for the pick
up as soon as payment is done. So to make payment out to you, you'll have to email me the:

FULL CONTACT NAME
FULL CONTACT ADDRESS
CITY,STATE & ZIP CODE
PHONE NUMBER #
FINAL ASKING PRICE OF THE ITEM
MOBILE #
Many Thanks, And Awaiting Your Response,

http://handicappedpet.net/class/showpro ... roduct=569

The sad part of these kind of emails is that they obviously must work sometimes.

how did a scammer sending phishing emails gain access to this list?

Anyone can read the classifieds; I assume that was in response to a classified.

are the ads placed on handicapedpets.com posted on the internet (i.e. google) or are they only seen if you are a member of handicappedpets.com?

They show up in a google search. Though I don't know how soon, I found yours by adding handicapped pets to the search criteria.

oh, in that case - i will delete the ad an not be posting any further ads. i thought this was a private/membership only matter.

I didn't actually read your ad, but noted it was for a stroller; if you PM me the info and your location and asking price I can post it to our Wheelcorgis group. (Which IS private.)

I am sorry this happened and sorry you deleted your ads. The scammer did not have any way to know your email address (unless you posted it visibly in the text of your ad, and from what I can tell, you did not). Otherwise your email address is hidden. When the buyer clicks CONTACT SELLER it produces an email form for them to fill out, where your email address is not visible. They are required to fill in their message and their email address, and then the Classifieds software delivers their message to you privately, but they will never know your email address unless you email them back from your personal email address. If you did not put your email address in the body of your ad, and if you did not email the buyer back, he still does not know your email address.

Even if the classifieds were for members only, I'm afraid it would not prevent the possible scammer from registering on the board and contacting someone. If someone notifies a moderator that this has happened, they can ban the user or delete the registration, but there is no way to know what someone might be going to do when they fill out a valid registration.

Yes, it does look like this was a scam, I see the same message posted on another board. I am glad you were quick to recognize it.

http://rangefinderforum.com/forums/show ... did=101833

Is it even safe to use the internet anymore?? has it ever been safe??

Seems like a lot of bad things are happening due to the internet and it's creators